Most people seem to have one thing in Angel that they dislike, be it Cangel, Connor or something else. So if you changed that one thing how would the series go?
Well, though I am actually kind of fond of Connor, I could see a very neat solution to the Cangel (makes me wanna hurl) mess... Make Jasmine the/a product of the souled vampire and Darla! There was definitely something evil afoot there!
I didn't have an issue with the whole Jasmine storyline if it doesn't include Cangel and murderous Connor... it was kind of interesting. Even the arising of the beast was interesting as long as it's not the avatar of evil Cordelia...
And what if you still wanted to make Connor be born directly of Darla? A two for one special is a good solution to that: How about the beast arising out of the spot from where Connor was born, and then, using (grown up) Connor's blood to raise up Jasmine from that very spot? Just a thought. And yes, definitely skip the Cordelia ascends nonsense. She was never THAT holy!! Maybe she and Groo could go away to tibet to find themselves, or fight demons or something, if they needed to have Cordelia off the show for a bit?
Groodelia for the win!
And yes, have them offered the W&H, but no, don't have them accept... Let them use the tour to end things for W&H (after all, they'll have free run of the building!) Instead of joining, have them use Connor's special powers to help take down W&H and get all their associated folks taken down...
If Connor went nuts because of his connection to the Beast and Jasmine, we could have Cordelia use her powers to soothe the madness from him -- forever.
Oh, and let the slayers come in and help take down W&H -- one last big battle where everyone fights together and winds up all the BtVS and Ats threads in a big finale that makes the world safe from The Second AKA the Senior Partners!
(Oh dear, I feel a new story coming on... I'll have to sit quietly, and maybe it will go away)
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Or, you know, you could read my story Turned from Darkness... No, it doesn't prevent the entire season five debacle, and sadly doesn't avoid Cangel, but everyone in AI
doesn't die in the end... and there's souled Drusilla...
Actually, several of my stories (Xander's New Home/The Twisted Road Home) and my WIPs work on fixing the end of Angel, the series. I might just have issues with how it all went...
So many cool ideas in this thread. I really need to finish my other stories, but... so many good ideas. I hear fanfic calling.